A Lovely Christmas Tradition

By Trish Steel

I've just been to a wonderful candlelit carol service at the Church of the Holy Jesus, Lydbrook, in Gloucestershire.  Over the past few years, the village has become famous for its Christmas Tree festival. People travel from all over the world to enjoy the spectacle, and it's definitely worth a visit. Among the many stunning displays this year there's a miniature automated alpine village complete with moving cable-cars and skiers zipping down the slopes, a Gruffalo hides in one of the trees, and you can write your own message on a white dove to add to a tree of memories. The festival was held on 13th, 14th and 15th December this year, although everything will be on view again during a mini-Christingle service at 3pm on Christmas Eve and again from 11:00pm that night, ahead of Midnight Mass. After that, there'll be another chance to see the wonderful array of decorated trees during the short, hugely enjoyable family service at 9:30am on Christmas morning.

You can see some pictures of The Orchard Trust hard at work decorating their tree here while Santa's enjoying a display straight from Narnia called Cold, Crisp, Frosty, Magic and Sparkle here!

The holiday season is all too often a time of stress, noise and bustle. It's lovely to take some time out to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas in the peace and serenity of a country church like this.  You don't need a star to guide you - just get up a bit earlier (!) on Christmas morning, set your sat.nav to GL17 9SH, and pop along to the 9:30am family service at the Church of the Holy Jesus, Lydbrook.

Mysteries on the Wye

This morning my OH walked down to the river as usual after escorting me to church. The lack of rain in the last few weeks means that the river level has been slowly dropping again so that the island (more of a gravel bank really) in the middle has reappeared. Along with something else...
 

Above is the island as it appeared in late summer. Most of it is visible along with the gravel spits at either end. The river in front has lots of ripples, as you might expect given that it was shallow enough to ground canoes. Now look at the photo taken this morning from roughly the same spot – the river flows from right to left in both pictures:

The river is still higher than it was when the first photo was taken, so I wonder what’s causing the mysterious standing wave? Obviously there’s something stuck on the river bed, but what could it be? I think we should be told!

Another mystery is what’s happened to all the moles in our garden? We don’t have lawns as such, just areas of something that on average looks like grass. Usually we have to spend some time before we mow just kicking down the molehills, otherwise it’s like trying to push the mower over the Apennines. Walking across the ’lawns’ is an adventure in itself thanks to all the runs underneath that make your feet sink a little every few steps. But lately – almost nothing.

We like to think that it’s all thanks to our cat, who (when not eating or sleeping) is very good at keeping down all the mice, voles and shrews in the garden and has been known to bring in – and up – the occasional mole. We’ve even found the odd squirrel carcass now & again.

Although OH thinks that there might be another reason, and that the two mysteries might be linked.

Along the river bank there were lots of molehills this morning, some of them quite fresh. OH’s theory is that the local moles have been watching too many documentaries about their cousins the North American beavers (we know they’re not really cousins, but the moles don’t…) OH thinks that they've decided to give the life aquatic a go and so the standing wave is caused by their first attempts at a beaver lodge.
Personally I think all that unaccustomed fresh air has gone to OH’s head!


After much anticipation we went to yesterday’s performance of the Nutcracker ballet by touring company Ballet Theatre UK. It was a wonderful production, made all the more amazing because of the limitations of our small local theatre – actually it’s owned by the local boys’ school to which Son Number One goes. He was studying the souvenir programme closely over breakfast this morning, so maybe he hasn’t given up on his old hobby altogether.

Being a professional dancer takes passion, determination and dedication as well as raw talent, but if he did decide to take it up as a career then we’d be thrilled to little mint balls!.

The local church I attend is in desperate need of repair, like all too many small parish churches in England these days. While he was waiting for me this morning, OH noticed a strange line of damaged & discoloured stones on the wall above the doorway. Neither of us could work out what might be causing the stones to decay in a gentle curve (from bottom left of the photo, curving over the window and ending at the top right). There are no gutters or gargoyles above, nor does it correspond to any structure on the inside of the wall. Does anybody have any ideas?

OH has been trying to develop a conspiracy theory involving the vanished moles, but even he thinks that might be a bit too far-fetched.

Three Top Tips To Help With Your Writing...

By Antonio Litterio

1. Get Hooked – expressing yourself in words is better for you than eating sugar, and just as addictive. Instead of eating cake at coffee-time, start keeping a diary or jot down ideas for your novel. Make writing your new regular, unbreakable daily habit. It doesn’t matter if you can only afford to spend a few minutes on it. Consistency is the key. Set aside some time every day to write. The amount of time you can spend has less to do with your results than your determination. Remember, the more you put into your work, the more you’ll get back in return. Nothing beats the satisfaction of finishing a project. If you can only schedule enough spare time to make notes, do it. Nothing you write will be wasted. When you finally sit down to enjoy a good, long writing session, you’ll never need to waste time waiting for inspiration. You’ll have loads of things down on paper already. The words will be ready to dance across that beautiful blank page for you. The feeling that gives is better than the icing on any cake!  

2. Get Organised – dedicate an area where you can write every day. It doesn’t have to be large. Just make sure there’s enough room to keep your books (see Tip Three) and paperwork to hand. A permanent space is best. If you have to share your writing refuge with other people or projects, keep your things in a cardboard box so you can stow them away easily at the end of each session. It’s amazing how fast paperwork builds up, so you’ll need some way of keeping track. Use large envelopes labelled with chapter headings or character names to keep everything in order.

3. Be Prepared – make sure your writing kingdom’s well stocked, and don’t let anyone borrow your stuff. They say they’ll give it back, but can you guarantee they will? It’s better not to weaken. Show them (nicely, of course!) how to be better organised and get their own supplies, like you. You’ll be giving them a lesson in responsibility. At the most basic level you’ll need plenty of pencils (pens run out, or leak), a sharpener, an eraser, and paper. Sometimes nothing beats that connection with words which appear from a sharp point onto a real surface under your hand. Get a good dictionary, a thesaurus and a book on punctuation such as Getting The Point by Jenny Haddon and Elizabeth Whiteside,  or Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. Don't rely on the library for  books you'll need all the time. While you can use online resources, try looking for cheap second-hand copies of real books. They'll help with your off-line sessions, or when your computer fails. That’s when the best ideas always arrive!

If you've enjoyed these tips, you can find more at christinahollis.com Visit here and you can click to sign up for my newsletter, which will bring news about my next release and a whole lot more.

Three Top Tips For Writers...

By Henriette Brown

1. When you first start writing, keep an open mind. Try anything, until you find the perfect match between your own personal style and one particular story-telling genre. Finding the right outlet for your writing voice is a bit like falling in love with a pair of shoes in the shop window. If you try them on and they don’t fit, you know they'll be a daily agony - it doesn't matter how much you invest in them. Look elsewhere, and you'll save yourself a lot of pain. Writing is hard enough, without having to struggle against your own nature every step of the way.
2. Find yourself a successful mentor, preferably through your local creative writing group. You need someone who will be honest about your work, and suggest ways you can improve. If you can't find any face-to-face guidance, go on line and check out popular writers whose work you admire. Then you'll see if they’ve produced any guides to writing that will help you. Kate Walker's 12 point Guide to Writing Romance and Liz Fielding’s Little Book of Writing Romance are both brilliant, and will take you step-by-step through the process of crafting the novel of your dreams. 

3. Writing is a solitary business. Take care you don’t become too self-absorbed. Sometimes it feels like you're the only person struggling to meet a word count, deadline, or grappling with characters who won't grow and a plot that won't arc. Meet up with like-minded people online for a new perspective. Check out Facebook and Twitter, of course - they're brilliant, but can take up a lot of time. Visit your local library to find out about local creative writing groups, or join The Romantic Novelists' Association or the Romance Writers of America. Both organisations provide lots of useful information and contacts.

If you've enjoyed these tips, there are more at christinahollis.com Visit here and you can click to sign up for my newsletter, which will bring news about my next release and a whole lot more!

A Writer's Life – Autumn Is Here...

That was then...

Autumn has arrived, and it came in on a blustery south-west wind. That means rain - and lots of it. Only a few weeks ago, the river level was almost down to the record low level of the famous drought year of 1976 - on the right is a snap of it as it was.

... and this is now

Now rain falling on the mountains of Wales is gradually draining into the Wye. Canoeists don’t have to  worry about grounding on gravel banks anymore. They’re too busy fighting their way through torrents and rapids. The snap on the left was taken today and shows how the small island has disappeared.

As I type this, it’s impossible to see our neighbour’s house - the rain is so heavy, clouds have filled the valley. All the water-butts around the house and greenhouses are overflowing, and they were almost empty in September. The weather this year has been as good as last year was bad. This meant a great harvest of fruit, and now autumn has set the blueberry leaves on fire.

After losing all my bees, I was lucky enough to get a replacement colony via our local beekeepers’ club. It was  late in the beekeeping season, but my new bees still managed to populate their hive. I shall have to be on my toes next spring, or their queen will think it’s time to lay a replacement and move out with a swarm of her followers. She’ll want to set up a new home somewhere else, leaving her daughter queen behind in my hive with a tiny nucleus of young bees. That means I’ll get no honey for the second year running! To avoid that happening, I’ll  try and hang onto my existing queen by persuading her to move out, but only as far as one of my spare hives. That means I’ll be spending this autumn cleaning and repairing all my spare kit, ready for next spring. Like gardening, beekeeping needs you to think ahead.

By TheMightyQuill

I’m planning to issue my next newsletter soon, and this picture has been a great inspiration! I'll be including my own recipe for Turkish delight in my newsletter, and you can sign up to be included on the mailing list here. 

Three Top Tips To Help Your Creative Writing...

By Antonio Litterio

Keep copies of all your work. Set your computer system to do this automatically, every thirty minutes or so. It will remember, so you don’t have to! Have a separate memory stick for each day of the week. At the end of each working day, copy the latest version of your work in progress onto the appropriate stick. Keep them together on a key-ring, and keep them with you at all times. As an extra safeguard in case your external memory gets corrupted, lost or stolen, email your work in progress to yourself once every seven days as a backup. If you use a MAC, “save As” a word document too. That way, you’ll always be able to access your WIP via email, on whatever form of computer you have to hand. Never rely on keeping things wholly in the cloud, just in case.

Use all your senses to gather inspiration, then store it in ways that will help you to get creative. Take photos (getting permission where necessary) and upload them onto Pinterest andTumblr, for example. This will provoke all sorts of reactions from potential readers, and you can use these to further inspire your work. You can keep the boards secret if you like, or fully engage your social network. Bookmark helpful sites online, but use metadata (tags and key-words) so you can find things again easily. There’s so much interesting stuff on the internet, the tendency to save links and articles in the same way a demented squirrel hoards nuts. A good system for retrieving them makes the difference between useful information, and endless time-wasting searches.

Make use of your local library. They need all the support they can get, so the staff there are always delighted to help. They do far more than simply lend out books nowadays. Ours holds talks and creative writing classes, offers a free audio book service, lends ebooks, and has a telephone book-club, so the housebound don’t miss out.  They work with family history and local studies groups, as well as subscribing to wide range of newspapers, magazines so you don’t have to! The ability to book online time means you’ll still have access to a computer if yours is out of action. You can also use the library’s facilities to scroll back through back-copies of printed media, which is bound to give you dozens of ideas. You can go on to check facts and figures with the library’s reference section at the same time. Most library services are free, or easily affordable, so a trip to your local branch is always a bargain.

For another free resource, visit christinahollis.com and click to sign up for my newsletter, which will bring news about my next release and a whole lot more!

A Writer's Life - Our Local Heroine...

I’m celebrating a genuine local heroine today. Denise was born here in the village, and grew up to become an invaluable member of our local community. She left school at fifteen to start work as a shop assistant, and later became a professional child-minder. Everyone for miles around has been taken under Denise’s wing at some time or another. She is a devoted daughter, wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She has been a local councillor,  a central figure in  the local dramatic society, after-school and holiday clubs, monthly lunch sessions, and much more besides. Our friendship began when Denise took on the job of  looking after our daughter when DD was five months. Denise lavished as much care and attention on DD as we did! 

Denise and her family have always been great supporters of the local church. In 2009, after a lot of soul-searching, she took the first step on the long, hard road to becoming a licensed Reader in the Church of England. This has involved her in hours of study, she’s had to write dozens of essays, complete mountains of coursework and spend periods away from home on residential courses as she prepared to work for the church Gloucestershire. The work was hard and time-consuming, but with her determination fuelled by the support of her family, she refused to give up. 

Four years later, all her hard work and sleepless nights have resulted in well-deserved success. Last Saturday, practically our whole village descended on Gloucester cathedral to watch Denise (and seven other new Readers from other parishes around the diocese), receive official recognition by the Bishop of Gloucester.  Beforehand, I had the honour of witnessing the signing of her license in the cathedral's Regimental Chapel, which was a great experience. 

The cathedral was packed, the music and ceremony was amazing and afterwards, the sun shone for photographs. Nobody could ask for anything more...but then Denise treated us all to a magnificent feast back in the village club. The centrepiece was this cake, iced with The Lord’s Prayer. It tasted every bit as good as it looked.

Congratulations, Denise! We always knew you could do it - and now you have. Next stop, Lambeth Palace?